


Retail Tales

by Subtlety Lost (fishstic)



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Or several if I decide to continue them, a lot happens in retail, and I have stories, god do i have stories, listen, partially based on a true story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-03
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-02-28 00:18:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13259631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishstic/pseuds/Subtlety%20Lost
Summary: Lena's been a cashier for as long as she can remember, which isn't long thanks to an accident she had that affected her ability to properly categorize memories, and sometimes interesting things happen to her. By far more interesting to her than the things customers do or say to her, however, is what another cashier is doing with her. She's always wanted a girlfriend as pretty as Emily, and honestly she isn't quite prepared to handle it when it happens, but she'll get there (she hopes)._A collection (probably) of stories based on things that have happened to me while working at Wal-Mart.





	1. Sleeping in the Breakroom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elephantems](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elephantems/gifts).



> while based on is appropriate, some of them are different from my actual experiences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena doesn't always have a ride to work or home from work, so one day when it snowed and she couldn't be sure of how she'd get there the next day she decided to spend the night sleeping in the breakroom. Emily has other ideas.

“Lena?”

She wasn’t sure if it was the urgency in the voice, or the fact that there was a voice at all, that had woken her up, but she hated it. “Wha...?”

“Are you okay?”

Lena hadn’t bothered to open her eyes, or move an inch. She was _trying_ to sleep after all. This was a minor distraction at best. “I’m sleeping.”

“I can see that, but why?”

Lena grumbled slightly in frustration. She had a feeling she’d only been asleep for ten minutes at best. “Because it is _snowing._ The road is _ice_. I can’t walk home in _ice and snow._ Well I mean I can, but it’s not safe and I’m not risking it. I’m stuck. More importantly, because I am _tired._ ”

“I could take you home.”

Lena looked up slightly, finally, to see who was offering the ride. She recognized the voice as being another cashier, but there were like at least 30 cashiers working here, they were the biggest grocery store in the area after all. She was stunned by how beautiful this other cashier was. Emily, she knew the name not just because of the name badge proudly displayed on her chest but also because Lena had asked numerous times if she could get the same shift as her so she’d have a chance to actually talk to her, perhaps over lunch. It’s all professional, totally not a date.

She felt like she knew Emily from somewhere else. They probably went to school together, a lot of people she went to school with were working with her now. She kind of had bad memory of things from school though, even though she’d only been out for a few years. She wasn’t entirely sure why that was, it could have something to do with the ‘spacing out’ that seemed to happen a lot since she wrecked her parents car trying to learn to drive.

“Don’t you think it’s a little soon for that?” Lena asked, her voice betraying her exhaustion but still allowing her to sound sufficiently flirty. “I mean, we haven’t even had dinner yet.”

“Do you want dinner?” Emily asked. “I can buy you dinner. Also I don’t think it’s soon at all, we’ve been friends since before we started school.”

Lena blushed. “I was joking. Wait… really? Why don’t I remember that?”

“You were flirting,” Emily pointed out and Lena blushed more. “Come on, let me buy you dinner, I’ll eat with you. Do you want to go home?” She paused for a moment, seemingly to consider Lena’s question. “Well, I know you’ve had some problems since we’ve been out of school, your parents said that you hit your head pretty hard in that car accident you had, and that while the doctors were sure that physically you’re fine, no permanent damage was done, mentally they’re not so sure. You were supposed to be seeing a therapist, but you stopped after only a few months because you didn’t feel comfortable there.”

“I’d rather not go home, I’d just be stuck trying to find a ride before my shift tomorrow, which starts at 1130,” Lena said, “but food would be nice. I… think I remember that therapist, she wanted to send me for behavioral therapy because I told her I like girls, that’s why I wasn’t comfortable being there anymore.”

“Then, I’ll stay with you,” Emily replied. “Unless you’d rather come back to my apartment?”

Lena blushed a little more, if she kept this up she’d be as red as Emily’s hair, and sat up straighter in her chair. Well, sat up at all really. “You’d stay with me?”

“If that’s what you wanted,” Emily said. “You shouldn’t be alone, god knows this place is practically deserted after midnight and it’s _still_ rather hard to sleep in here.”

“How do you know that?” This was, not entirely what Lena had meant when she’d told herself she wanted to get to know Emily better.

“I used to work 3rd shift when I first started, cause I had classes during the day,” Emily replied. “Sometimes I’d try, keyword _try_ , to take a nap in here before my shift or after, or during my ‘lunch’. It almost never worked, and the one time it did I almost got fired before someone had the bright idea that maybe I was sick. I also almost failed an exam.”

“How long were you sleeping then?”

“It was the second shift manager who found me, my manager hadn’t even realized I never came back from lunch, she just assumed I was working on something in another part of the store,” Emily replied. “I fell asleep almost as soon as I began lunch at like… 3? And was woken up by that manager at like, 1700? So, entirely too long.”

“Wait! I remember that,” Lena said suddenly. “I saw you sleeping in here and I tried to wake you up, to ask you if you were on lunch and for how long. You didn’t wake up.” She put her hand on Emily’s for a moment, “I called the manager because I was scared that we’d have to get like… a doctor or something. He managed to wake you up though. Didn’t it turn out that you were coming down with the flu?”

“I was out for a week after that,” Emily said then paused. “You tried to wake me up?”

Lena nodded. “I put my hand on your shoulder and shook you a little and said your name like three times, but you didn’t respond.”

Emily smiled. “Then consider this payback,” she said. “But like a good kind of payback. Good karma. You tried to wake me up then, and I woke you up now so you’d have dinner.”

“Speaking of that, shouldn’t we go find something edible in this store?” Lena asked.

“It’s a grocery store, Lena, almost everything is edible.”

“We have like, 75% of our store that’s general merchandise? I thought you’ve been working here longer than me,” Lena replied.

“Actually, haven’t you been working here since you were 13?” Emily asked.

Lena paused for a moment, unsure of it. Had she been working here that long? “Sometimes I forget that, but yes, actually, probably,” Lena replied, the last part more mumbled than said. “I’ve been working here for…” she paused counting it up on her fingers, “nine years. That’s a long time. How long have you been here?”

“Two,” Emily replied. “Two years.”

“Why did I think you have been here longer than me?”

“We went to school together,” Emily replied. “I used to come in every day after band practice and buy one specific snack food before going home and I did it just to make sure you made it to work okay.”

“So I thought you worked here longer because you kept checking in on me?” Lena said quietly. “That’s… that’s gay.”

Emily laughed. “No, the crush I’ve had on you since we were seven, that’s gay.”

Lena blushed hotly. “But you’re… like the best person ever? And I’m… I’m just a dork.”

“You could be my dork,” Emily said. “As for dinner, I was actually thinking maybe we could go to the restaurant across the street for some hot food. If there’s not too much ice out there would you like to come back to my apartment? It’d be better than sleeping here, and I’ll bring you to work tomorrow too.”

“Emily,” Lena said quietly, in part because the question she wanted to ask embarrassed her and part because she was so tired.

“Yes?” Emily hummed slightly, like she anticipated the question, but she probably did not.

“Did you really mean that?” Lena asked blushing slightly.

“Mean what?” Emily replied.

“That I could be your dork,” Lena asked. “Did you really mean that?”

“Oh, that,” Emily said like she thought Lena hadn’t actually heard it. “Well, I mean, if you want to be my dork,” she paused for a moment, like she was considering what she wanted to say exactly. “If you want to be my dork, then come home with me.”

“So I can’t be your dork if I sleep in the break room?”

“Nope, I rescind the offer if you don’t have common sense,” Emily said, though her tone was joking.

“Do we get to share a bed?”

Emily chuckled. “It’s warmer that way.”

“I’ll do it,” Lena said with a smile. “I’ll be your dork, and I’ll go home with you.”


	2. Flour Power

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily had heard the call for maintenance to the register that she knew Lena was working that day, but she didn't know how bad the spill was until she walked into the restroom on her lunch break and saw Lena.

“Luv, you kind of have a little something…” Emily paused slightly as she stared at her girlfriend, they’d only just started dating the day before yesterday (Emily had laughed a lot at her apartment when Lena had choked on her tea because she called Lena her ‘girlfriend’), who was covered nearly head to toe in some powdery white substance—probably flour. “Everywhere.”

Lena nodded slightly as she stepped back from the sink. “I know, Luv… it’s flour. Someone dropped a bag of flour off their trolley trying to get it onto the belt and it broke.”

“At least you were already wearing a white shirt,” Emily supplied in an attempt to make the situation sound a little better.

“Nope, my shirt’s orange,” Lena replied. “When I said broke… it more exploded.”

“How long did it take maintenance to get there?” Emily glanced at her watch, She’d just gotten on lunch so it wouldn’t hurt to talk to her girlfriend for a while.

“Only a few minutes, they were cleaning the restroom nearby,” Lena replied. “Are you at lunch, Luv? Can you help me out? How do I get all this flour off me? Is there still some in my hair?”

“I’d say probably a lint roller, and yes,” Emily replied. “Didn’t management tell you to change clothes?”

“Surprisingly no,” Lena said. “I ain’t got a lint roller luv any other suggestion?”

“Take your shirt off and shake it, really hard,” Emily said.

“Right here?” Lena questioned, like she thought that a man might walk into the restroom or something.

“It’s not like we’re in the middle of the store Lena. This is a restroom, no one will see you. If you’re more comfortable with it go into one of the stalls,” Emily replied.

“You’re not just suggesting this because you want to see me in my bra, right?” Lena asked, her tone flirtatious and teasing.

“Oh if I wanted to see you in your bra, I’d just ask,” Emily replied. “How is there so much flour on you anyway, even if it exploded, the standard two kilo bag of flour isn’t enough to make this much of a mess.”

“It was one of those really big like 10 kilo bags. Why do we sell those? Who needs 10 kilos of flour?” Lena glanced around for a moment then took her uniform vest off and handed it to Emily. “Let’s see if shaking it really hard gets any of the flour out of that at least.”

Emily took the vest and started shaking it out. “Bakeries and anyone with large families or that don’t want to buy flour very often need that much flour. The real question is why were they lifting it out of their trolley in the first place.”

“They put it in there with the barcode on the bottom,” Lena replied. “I couldn’t get the scanner to scan it through the trolley so I had to ask them to pick it up. But their kid knocked into them and that’s why they dropped it.”

It took maybe ten seconds for Emily to realize that she was making something of a mistake suggesting this method for getting the flour out of Lena’s clothes. All she was managing was getting flour on herself. With a sigh she handed the vest back. “We’re going to need to get you some other clothes. Unless you just want to let yourself be covered in flour all day.”

“I don’t have any other clothes here, Luv.” Lena took the vest back and started to put it on.

“I do though, in my locker,” Emily replied. “I keep an extra set in there in case someone does something stupid like spill detergent or chicken grease on me again.”

“Luv,” Lena said patiently, kind of like she was talking to a child. “I can’t fit your clothes, I tried yesterday. I’m too small.”

“Then we’ll buy you a new set and you can return them when the day ends or you can just keep them,” Emily replied. “I’ll pay.”

“Are you gonna watch me change?” Lena asked.

Emily frowned slightly. “You keep suggesting these things like you think it’s something I’d do without your permission. Lena, I’m your girlfriend not a creep. If you don’t _want_ me to watch you change clothes I won’t. I never intended to. I’m just trying to help you.”

Lena nodded then sighed slightly and said, “I’m sorry, Luv. My last girlfriend had boundary issues.”

“You still remember her? That girl you dated in year twelve?” Emily asked. Of all the things Lena did still remember without a lot of trouble from before her accident, that was probably the weirdest to Emily, they only dated for like a month.

“Of course I remember her. She followed me everywhere, wouldn’t let me do anything without her, kissed me even when I told her I didn’t want to be kissed, kept touching me when I’d tell her to stop, and got angry that I didn’t want her watching me change clothes,” Lena said. “She was a total creep.”

“Wow, I never knew she did all that,” Emily said. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Luv,” Lena replied. “Let’s go find me some new clothes. Maybe you’ll need new clothes too.”

“Why would I need new clothes?” Emily asked before she noticed the way Lena was smiling. “Oh no. No no. Lena you are _not_ hugging me while you’re covered in flour.” She backed away slightly.

“Aww come on, Luv, it’s _just_ a little flour,” Lena chuckled moving to hug Emily.

“No,” Emily protested with a smile backing away again playfully. “No, I _just_ washed these clothes last night.”

Lena grinned and walked toward Emily, who decided to try running away. She easily caught Emily and tackled her in a hug. “Haha, I win.”

Emily giggled slightly. “Guess you do, but I do too.”

“Why?” Lena asked.

“Because Luv, you give the best hugs,” Emily replied. “Also while we’re getting you new clothes… wait are you on your lunch or your break?”

“Lunch,” Lena said. “We clocked in together remember?”

“Right, I just wasn’t sure if you had like a short shift today or something,” Emily replied. “While we’re getting you new work clothes, there’s something I want to buy for you over in jewelry.”

“Bit soon for a ring, Luv, we only just started dating,” Lena replied.

“It’s not a ring,” Emily stated. “I have to show you it first.”

“Alright, but I don’t do necklaces luv,” Lena replied. “Though… is it a choker? I have some of those in a shoe box in my apartment.”

“A shoe box,” Emily stated, confused as to why someone would keep jewelry in something other than a jewelry box.

“Yeah, I can’t find a jewelry box that I like that will work for chokers,” Lena stated. “I also have a collar if you’re into that kind of thing.”

“Oh my god, Luv,” Emily gasped with fake surprise.

“What?” Lena asked sounding genuinely concerned.

“You’re a dork,” Emily replied teasingly.

“I’m your dork though,” Lena chuckled. “Is it a choker?”

“Maybe,” Emily hummed. “I have to show it to you.”

“It’s the choker with the little cat on it isn’t it,” Lena guessed.

Emily faked being shocked. Lena had been wanting that choker since they started carrying it. What was going to shock her honestly, was the _other_ thing she wanted to show Lena. A pocket watch with a biplane engraved on the front of it and on the inside of the cover was a special engraving she’d had done. It was a Christmas present, and she was overjoyed that it had actually showed up in time.  “I’m not telling.”

“It is,” Lena stated. “You know me so well.”

“Just wait and see, I know you better than you think,” Emily replied. “We should go before we waste the entire lunch hour just talking in a restroom.”

Lena smiled and took Emily’s hand. “Lead the way, Luv.”


	3. Late Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena hates working late, but more than that, she hates (or more fears really) when guys flirt with her while she's behind the register. Emily should understand, but then, Emily is braver than she is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God I wish this chapter was exaggerated, but aside from Emily's interjection and presence, the events are literally exactly how they happened to me the other night when I had to work late because I needed a ride from another cashier who got off 2 hours later than me. 
> 
> Also it's out of order, but I finished it first and promised my girlfriend I'd post it for her.

Lena glanced at her empty checkout lane. She’d give anything at this point to not have to stay on the register until 2300. Anything. She’d even give up a few dollars of her paycheck if it meant she could just sit down for a while and take a nap. Thankfully though, her line was empty and there didn’t appear to be a whole lot of people in the store at the moment.

“Luv,” Emily said from behind her, startling her so badly she actually jumped. “Whoa sorry, didn’t mean to startle you. I asked an management, well the css actually, said I could stay over here with you until you get off work, as long as I didn’t do any work myself since I’m already clocked out.”

“Thanks luv, it’s okay,” Lena replied, “I’m glad you’re here.”

Just like that, things were a little better. A woman came through with some cold medicine, easy enough to ring up. After that, there was a few minutes of silence, in which Emily had stepped up and started rubbing her shoulders gently, before anything else happened.

“Haha good one bro.”

Lena glanced down her lane again as Emily backed up to a respectable distance away. Walking toward them, chuckling and goofing off, was a group of men that looked to be in their mid 20s, probably college students holding a couple cases of beer. One of them put his case of beer on the belt.

Lena gave them a professional smile. "'Ello," she said forcing herself to not sound tired as hell. "I'm going to need your ID," she added as she passed the beer over the scanner and the register prompted for the customer's date of birth.

"You always ask for my ID," he replied with a laugh and a teasing tone as he fished his ID out of his pocket and handed it over. "If you want my name just ask; it's Tim."

Lena made no comment as she looked over his ID to make sure it wasn't fake, noting with some... disdain--which was the only word she could find to fit the feeling--that he was 31 years old. Anything she would have said in that moment would have been interpreted by him one of two ways, either flirting or a rejection of his flirting and she didn't want to deal with the consequences of him interpreting her words to be anything other than just words right now any more than she wanted him to be flirting with her.

"You're kind of pretty," he said as she handed back his ID after entering the information into the register. "What are you doing this weekend?"

"Working," she replied quickly, anticipating that if allowed Emily would have replied with 'me.' She took the time to scan the other cases of beer while doing that.

“Aw, what’s your man think of that?” Tim replied jokingly, then said, “Do you even have a man?”

 _He just wants me to say no so he can ask me out._ “I have a girlfriend actually.”

“Haha, nice!” He grinned and held out his fist. “Fist bump for that bro.”

Slightly confused, Lena complied. He laughed as he pulled back his hand wiggling his fingers in the process.

“Haha, boom, exploded that one,” he laughed. “What’s your girlfriend think of you working all weekend? Bet she likes that money.”

Lena hesitated. Emily was right behind her. What if she said something wrong? What if she upset Emily by saying the wrong thing?

“She thinks it’s kind of nice,” Emily said. “Nice that the bills will be paid. Nice that she has something to do, other than me, this weekend. Nice that I already have her so I don’t have to waste time flirting with people who are in positions where they can’t reasonably be able to say no. How’s it feel? Being that lonely all the time?”

“I wasn’t flirting,” Tim protested but his friends shook their heads. “Okay maybe I was flirting a little.”

Lena bit her lip then said, “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Tim shook his head, then handed over exact change for what he bought. “Your girlfriend is scary,” he said as he took his beer and receipt then left with his friends.

“Emily,” Lena said quietly. “Did you have to do it like that?”

“Did I say something wrong?” Emily asked, her voice having that little hitch in it she got when she was scared.

“I just… Emily, you might not think it from looking at me, but interactions like that genuinely terrify me. You insulting him didn’t help. You might have thought it would, but it didn’t.”

“I’m sorry, Lena,” Emily said. “Is there anything I can do to help make it up to you?” She paused for a moment then added, “I know saying this won’t make it better, but I didn’t mean to make things worse for you.”

“I know,” Lena replied patiently. “You were trying to help. Trying to protect me by showing him that you wouldn’t put up with him making me uncomfortable like that. But It didn’t help. I appreciate what you wanted to accomplish, but please don’t do it again. Especially not to a customer.”

“I promise I won’t do it again,” Emily said. “Is there anyway I can make it up to you though.”

“Maybe,” Lena said. “You know that thing you do with your hands?”

“Do you mean the sexy thing or a massage?”

“Both, but right now the massage is good enough,” Lena replied.

 


	4. Fly on, Tracer Ace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily's got a special present for Lena. Some tears are involved, and Lena learns that Emily had planned on asking her out for a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back to the regular story. This takes place immediately after chapter 2. if I could figure out how to rearrange the story to put the chapter in the right place without deleting the other chapter I would.

Lena bit her lip slightly as she stood back from the jewelry counter while Emily talked with the girl, Marie, who was running it today. Emily looked so beautiful leaning over the counter like that (what was she even pointing at so excitedly) though somehow she could think of several other ways she’d enjoy Emily leaning on things. _Pay attention, Lena, work isn’t the time for fantasies._

“It’s right over here, but are you sure you want to give it to her now?” Marie asked. “I mean, she does lose things very often.”

“You have the chain right?”

_Chain? What did she buy? Why are they scared I’ll lose it? It’s not like… well mum does always say I’d lose my head if it weren’t attached to my body… but what’s so important._

“Lena, focus luv,” Emily said gently, motioning Lena over to the counter.

“What?” Lena bit her lip slightly. Had Emily asked her something?

“Come here,” Emily replied.

Lena smiled slightly. _Maybe that’s all I missed._ “Okay luv. Anything for you.”

“You two are so gross,” Marie said. “Flirting.”

Lena frowned. “You flirt with your boyfriend all the time?”

“I know, and it’s gross, so sicky sweet,” Marie replied. “But that’s us I guess, saps. Suckers who like a good toothache.”

Lena furrowed her brow. _What the hell is she talking about?_

“Marie, you’re confusing her,” Emily said. “Lena, she’s just joking, and she says it about _all_ couples.”

“Oh.” Lena smiled slightly despite feeling really stupid. “What did you want me to see?”

“Close your eyes,” Emily said.

Lena pouted. “But I can’t see your pretty face if I do that.”

“ _Lena_ ,” Emily replied. “It’s not a surprise if you don’t close your eyes.”

Lena pouted more. “Aww come on luv.”

“Just close your eyes, Lena,” Marie said, “I have other customers and I can’t do anything with them until we figure out if this works properly.”

Lena pouted but closed her eyes. She hated when people were annoyed with her, and even if Marie wasn’t annoyed with her, she certainly sounded like she was. She felt Emily’s hands on the waistband of her new pants. _What the fuck is she doing?_ It was a moment before she figured out what she’d been doing when she felt the very slight tug of something now hooked to one of the belt loop, then her jacket was pushed aside as something was slipped into the pocket of her vest.

“It’s long enough to go that way,” Emily said. “which means it’s more than long enough to go from her name tag hole to the pocket. It’s perfect, thank you.”

“Good, if you’re done,” Maria said, “the choker is in the bag. Have a good rest of your lunch, please try to remember to actually eat something.”

“Can I open my eyes now?” Lena asked.

Emily chuckled. “Maybe, but what happens if I just lead you through the store by this chain like a little puppy?”

“Emily no,” Lena said quickly. “Not in…”

“You can open your eyes, Lena, it’s okay.” Emily replied, cutting Lena off, “I was only joking.”

“Take it somewhere else,” Maria said, “I need that part of the counter.”

Lena nodded and opened her eyes. She didn’t see anything new, but she did notice that Emily was smiling at her really _excessively_ cutely. “What?”

Emily didn’t say anything as she picked up the bag from the counter and took Lena by the hand. “Come with me, away from miss grumpy.”

“I am not grumpy,” Maria said, in between sizing the finger of the woman she was now helping and telling her about the different kinds of rings they sold “I’m tired, there’s a difference.”

“Debatable,” Emily replied. “Still, come on Lena.”

Lena smiled and followed along behind Emily, she rather liked the view even though it was mostly just a bird that was on the back of Emily’s jacket. “What was that all about?”

“What time is it?” Emily replied. That was clearly avoiding the subject, in Lena’s opinion.

“I don’t have a watch, and my phone is dead,” Lena replied.

“Check your pocket,” Emily hinted, reaching back to tap the pocket for emphasis.

“My pocket doesn’t tell time,” Lena replied. “Does it?”

“Check _inside_ your pocket,” Emily replied. “I wanna know how long we have before we have to go back to work.”

“I don’t understand, but okay,” Lena said. Truth be told, her brain was a little tired from working late the night before and having to come in so early today. She reached into her pocket, following the chain that was hanging out of it, and found it was attached to a small metal round thing. “Oh my god,” she gasped. “You’re a nerd, is that a pocket watch?”

“Take it out and look at it, please luv,” Emily said.

Lena nodded and pulled the watch out. The watch was an orangeish gold color, though it felt like it was sterling silver, she couldn’t tell for sure just from looking at the back, but there was a tiny engraving on it there: a name, a serial number, and the word ‘custom’. Unsure what else to do with it, she flipped it over. She froze when she saw the engraving on the front. It was just an old biplane, but it looked just like the one her grandfather had flown. She opened her mouth slightly to tell Emily she shouldn’t have, but no words came. She just stared, and stared, and stared, until her eyes started watering and her chest ached. No amount of words could express how much this watch meant to her.

“It’s okay, luv, take your time, but there’s something inside it too,” Emily said gently. She’d closed the distance between them, and without Lena even realizing she’d done it, moved them both to the side of the aisle they were standing in so they’d be out of the way.

Lena nodded very slowly, pressing the button on the top of the watch’s winding crown. At first she didn’t notice anything particularly special about the inside of the watch aside from the fact that the numbers, and marks for the minutes, on the face were rainbow colored. For the watch to be this customized, it must have been really expensive. After a moment, she glanced at the inside of the front cover, and that’s when she saw the engraving.

_“Fly on, Tracer Ace. Fly on for me.”_

Those were the last were words her grandfather had ever said to her or anyone. She sniffed slightly. She was crying now, and there was nothing she’d be able to do to stop it. She couldn’t move, couldn’t stop staring at the watch, at the engraving that she could now barely see through the tears.

“Y-you shouldn’t have,” she finally managed to choke out. “You… I’m crying now.”

Emily responded by pulling Lena into a tight hug. “It’s okay to cry.”

It was a few moments of crying on Emily’s shoulder before Lena regained enough of herself to ask, “How did you know to do this?”

“Your mother,” Emily replied. “The watch itself was my idea, your mother generously let me borrow a picture of your grandfather’s plane for the watchmaker to use to make the engraving as accurate as possible. You’d need a magnifying glass, but the name is on the engraved plane too. Your mom told me about your grandfather and his last words when I asked her if she could help me pick a quote to put on the inside that would actually mean something to you.”

“Why did you do this?” Lena asked quietly.

“It’s going to be Christmas in a few days, and while I prefer baking my gifts for people, I wanted your gift this year to be something that would last a really long time,” Emily said gently. “I wanted a gift that would last.”

“But for something like this, it would have taken weeks,” Lena gasped. “We’ve only been dating a couple days.”

“Months, actually; I ordered it in March,” Emily corrected. “And, it was supposed to be a… part of a proposal I’d been planning for months. Well… a proposal is sthe wrong word. I was planning on giving it to you on Christmas Eve and asking you to date me, not necessarily in that order. But then you were a dork, and I accidentally ruined my perfectly nice cheesy romantic plan of having a Christmas Eve anniversary by asking you out before I really meant to. I think it’s better this way. Thinking about it now, asking you out on Christmas Eve seems like a bad idea. Romantic in thought, but we both work that day.”

Lena smiled through her overwhelmed feelings. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Emily replied.

Lena leaned up for a moment and placed a gentle and very brief kiss on Emily’s lips. “We need to eat soon,” she said finally. “If the watch has already been set and is right, we only half of our hour lunch left.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used to have a pocket watch with a train on the front of it when I was little, it was a gift from my grandfather. Memory and nostalgia of that watch, and a near constant slew of having to replace my watches now because I keep losing them, inspired this chapter.


End file.
